No cherubs. No doilies. No crap.

Archive for the category “Grammar Nazi”

I mean it this time. I have a Plan. And that’s Plan with a capital P, just so you know I mean business.

I’ve revamped my story excerpt pages (Click on “My Novels” at the top, or one of the novel pages to the left right under my picture) to include brief descriptions of two of my novels–including the first online appearance of Broadway High! It’s finished, edited, and going through some polishing rounds with beta readers, so I’ll start querying it as soon as I can get a synopsis written.

My new focus will be to give this blog a thrice-a-week format: Mondays will feature the main attraction—film, show, or book reviews with a focus on the romance subplot and whether or not it succeeds. Wednesdays will be about writing—sometimes this will be about my writing, other times it will be writing tips, or Grammar Nazi posts, or even agent interviews if I can get up enough courage to solicit some. Fridays will be random, but I will post something, even if it’s just a rant about Real Estate agents and who they think they’re fooling anyway by calling a house “cozy.”

*Michelle climbs back onto the face of the earth.* Whew, quite a tumble I took there wasn’t it? I haven’t posted anything new since July?? And I’ve read so many books I should review, too.

Here’s what’s coming in the next few weeks: review of the TV show “Farscape,” review of Under Heaven by Guy Gavriel Kay, review of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (yes, I was living under a rock after falling off the face of the earth, so it’s taken me awhile to get on board with the book everyone and their senile uncle has read) and a Grammar Nazi post (really, she should rename herself the Spelling Nazi, because that’s all she really harps on. *ouch* Okay, she just smacked me for finishing that sentence with a preposition. And she’s seething over this entire paragraph. Heh.)

On other news, I’ve finished the major revisions to Veiled Iron and have begun querying. I’m planning on entering a few contests, and resuming work on Broadway High (for those of you keeping track, that’s the YA musical novel). My fanfiction story is finished, and several lovely readers from that experience have volunteered to read Veiled Iron for me and give me some feedback. Yay 🙂

It’s spelled dining. D-I-N-I-N-G. There’s no such thing as a “dinning” room, and I know it’s not a typo when you keep using it ALL THROUGHOUT THE LISTING.

The majority of houses I find online bear descriptions that look like a particularly uneducated twelve year old texted them to the listing office, so I had thought I was building up a thick skin to the clear lack of caring real estate agents put into their property listings. Oh no.

So, “georgeous” kitchen aside (I kind of love that, actually), I’m reading right along until I hit that “dinning.” I think, ok, typo, and click on through to the photo gallery where everything–the captions, the page headings, everything to do with that particular spot in the house is spelled “dinning.”

I have many, many miles to go before my new Honda Fit needs an oil change, but like any overprotective new parent I’m over-thinking how to take care of it.

I was raised to trust dealership service departments about as far as I can throw them, but in reading over my manual and doing some further reading online, I’m coming to think that I may need to take it to the dealership for oil changes and whatnot (partially due to the very specialized maintenance minder installed on the vehicle).

So, I’m reading consumer reviews for local dealerships. Some of these review sites allow the dealer to post a response to a customer’s comment, and what do you know, our favorite dealership (yes, the same one as last time) stopped the Grammar Nazi in her tracks. The bolding is mine:

Dear [redacted], You said it, “repeat business and referrals say volumes about satisfaction.” Building customers for life is what we strive to do here at [redacted] Honda. You are the epidamy of that goal and we look forward to doing business with you for years to come. [redacted], Customer Relations Manager

First thought: Is this person talking about skin?
Second thought: Oh, epitome.
Third thought: Ahahahahahaha [cough] haha [cough] ahem.

Well…I guess that’s how most people say “epitome”. And, in the interest of full disclosure, the Grammar Nazi’s mother (hereinafter referred to as the Ur-Grammar Nazi) once had a good chuckle at the expense of her bookworm daughter over this very word. I had only ever read the word, knew what it meant, and pronounced it “EP-eh-tome.”

On the plus side, this rep used decent punctuation and capitalization with no typos, so I won’t dismiss her service department because she had the guts to use a good word (even if she made it sound like a skin condition). This dealer seems to have generally high marks, and their job is to accurately reset my complicated maintenance computer, not win spelling bees.

#2 – Spelling errors may be forgivable on their own, but combined with the others…no, sorry I’m changing my mind. If you can’t spell, why are you working the internet sales team instead of the sales floor? Some people can’t spell–I get that–but when your chief tool for selling cars is the written word, how an internet salesperson spells and composes an email sends the same message as a regular salesperson strolling across a car lot wearing a camo hoodie and flip flops.